A 3,000 crowd to welcome Blues

Published Date: 29 August 2008

By Andrew Snaith

WHITBY Town face their first ever meeting with UniBond League Premier Division newcomers FC United of Manchester tomorrow, desperate to end an unprecedented start to the season of four defeats out of four.

FC United was formed by Manchester United supporters disappointed by the Glazer takeover in June 2005.

Since then, successive promotions have taken the club from the North West Counties League to the Unibond League Premier Division, after a comfortable 4-1 play-off final victory over Skelmersdale in front of 3,258 at Gigg Lane, Bury.

United have kept up the big crowds this season with 2,825 taking in Monday's 1-0 defeat to Boston. This exceeded the crowd at League Two landlords Bury's only home game so far by 146.

So far, FCUM have made an unremarkable start to their maiden top flight campaign, kicking off with a 3-3 draw with Matlock before a 2-0 defeat at fellow promoted side Cammell Laird, a sole win over Buxton on Saturday and Monday's defeat.

Kick-off at Gigg Lane is 3pm with admission set at £7.50 adults, concessions £5 and U18s £2.

Town fans are due to be segregated for the first time since the FA Cup defeat to Hartlepool in 2003, with away supporters confined to one quarter of the main stand.

Central defender Richard Forster and striker Danny Brunskill are likely to miss out with calf injuries.

Danny Farthing is still awaiting news of a knee scan so Mark Tinkler may fill the void at the centre of defence.

Midfielder Steve Huggins has a tight hamstring but should be okay while defender Kevin Burgess (ankle) and keeper Dave Campbell (hernia) are back in contention.